21 illegal immigrants arrested in boat at beach

ENCINITAS  Authorities arrested 21 suspected illegal immigrants early yesterday in Leucadia after the boat they were in came ashore on Beacon's Beach.

Agents with the Customs and Border Protection's Marine Interdiction Unit spotted the 15-foot panga about 4:50 a.m. about one mile offshore and followed it until it reached the beach, officials said.

Nineteen men and 2 women, all Mexican nationals, were taken into custody and handed over to the Border Patrol, Border Patrol Agent Mark Endicott said.

This is the third boat intercepted off the coast of San Diego County since Saturday, when two women and six men were apprehended aboard an 18-foot Bayliner that crossed into U.S. waters about 4 p.m.

Agents questioned four people who were on deck. When agents considered their story suspicious, they searched the vessel and found four people in a cabin below deck that was locked from the outside.

All eight were from Mexico and did not have the papers to enter the United States legally, officials said.

On Sunday afternoon, agents arrested 13 people determined to be in the country illegally at Oceanside Harbor after they docked a 22-foot Cobalt motorboat at the marina. Two men were identified as smugglers. Six men and two women were from Mexico and two women and a man were from Bolivia, officials said.